Two dates in to their debut UK tour, the Brazilian six-piece CSS brought a blast of chaotic carnival cheer to Glasgow, despite the showers that soaked the inaugural Indian Summer festival. Signed to the legendary Seattle label Sub Pop, the former launchpad for Nirvana, the young São Paulo collective consists of five women and one man, Adriano Cintra, who also serves as chief songwriter and producer. Their name is abbreviated from Cansei der Ser Sexy, the Portuguese translation of a Beyonc? Knowles quote that she was “tired of being sexy”.
But the rowdy racket CSS made in Glasgow bore no relation to Beyonc?’s polished pop. A scruffy-sexy cocktail of propulsive dance rhythms, garage-rock guitars and declamatory vocals, its lineage lies more with female-dominated post-punk acts including the Slits, Tom Tom Club and the Sugarcubes. There are also echoes of the X-rated rapper Peaches in their raunchy, sarcastic, sex-obsessed lyrics, which are written by a half-Japanese singer who rejoices in the magnificent stage name of Lovefoxx.
Just two songs in, Lovefoxx took the first of several dives into the heaving crowd. A natural at show-off showmanship, the singer also charmed the audience with flagrantly insincere flattery. “This is a love song about Glasgow,” she announced before one track. “We love you! Give us free drinks!” she proclaimed three numbers later.
In interviews, CSS claim to be boozy art-school pranksters who can barely play their instruments. This tongue-in-cheek self-assessment may be grounded in truth, but not the whole truth. Behind the wilfully shambolic amateurism of their short set on Sunday lay a strong pop sensibility, especially in the reggae-infused Alcohol and the boisterous, bilingual Music is my Hot Hot Sex.
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Bands like CSS do not stay this fresh and cheeky for ever. The fashionista scene has already begun to embrace them, which is usually a bad omen. But right now they are all rough edges and rude attitude, irrepressible and irresistible.
93 Feet East, London tomorrow